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l-vvne-writes · 4 years ago

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Somewhere A Clock is Ticking: Family Ties [Part 1]

Fandoms: Criminal Minds, Bones

Pairings: no romantic pairings in this part, but eventual Aaron Hotchner x fem!Brennan!Reader, eventual Booth x Bones & all other canon (Bones) relationships

Characters: fem!Reader, Seeley Booth, Temperance Brennan, Russell Brennan, Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia, Spencer Reid, David Rossi, Angela Montenegro, [briefly mentioned] Jack Hodgins [briefly mentioned], Dr Goodman [briefly mentioned]

Warnings: none, I guess, but spoilers for Bones S1E22 "The Woman In Limbo" (honestly though this warning isn't necessary right)

A/N: so here it is, the first part of this series, based on the really weird idea I had while binging Bones... this is very heavily based upon the actual episode, so there will be scenes and lines quoted directly from the episode! also, it's split into (for now) 3 parts because I managed to ramble on and turn this one episode into 3 different "chapters" lmao rip I'm sorry. as usual with a reader insert, lines will be redistributed, some scenes will change, and some extra scenes will appear. I hope you guys enjoy this.

Disclaimer: In no way whatsoever do I own Bones or Criminal Minds, and neither am I getting any monetary gains from this work of fiction. If I did own the series, Booth and Bones would've gotten together much earlier in the series, and so many problematic ideas would've been cut out of the show. Oh well.

Do not copy or repost onto another site! Reblogs and comments will be very much appreciated. Let me hear your thoughts and feedback! They are what keeps me going! :)

Gif is not mine, all credit to the creator!

“(y/n)! Honey, are you okay? You look exhausted…” As the call connected, Penelope’s cheerful but concerned voice immediately came over the laptop’s speakers. You sighed softly and gave her a small smile through the screen. Your friend’s bubbly nature carried over even on video calls, and you were grateful that you had decided to do this. Your team could always be counted on to cheer you up, and what better way to distract yourself than by putting your attention on the case?

“Yeah, I’m fine, where’s everyone else? You look like you’re in an office at the Hawaiian police department, so I’m assuming the rest of the team’s there too.”

“Oh! Everyone’s here, we were just discussing some theories when I got your call. Here, let me put you on the desk so you can see everyone, and everyone can see you,” Penelope gave you a big grin as she got up from her seat.

The rest of your team was currently in Hawaii, working your latest case — a stalker who had been stalking and then snatching and torturing young girls to death. Four girls had been killed and their bodies dumped near the public beaches in Hawaii, which had in turn not just spooked the locals, but also instantly gained a huge amount of attention, which in turn led to the BAU team being called in immediately. Unfortunately for you, you’d just received a call from your older sister’s FBI partner, Seeley Booth, to inform you that your sister, Dr. Temperance Brennan, or rather, her team, had identified your mother from one of the sets of skeletal remains at the Jeffersonian. You weren’t quite sure what you were more shocked at— your mother being finally located, even if it was just her remains, or that Tempe of all people, had been the one to finally ID and confirm that it’s her.

It all happened just a few hours ago, but you barely remember what happened. Everything seemed to just pass by in a blur after you registered the words “your mother” “remains” “identified”, and you had been working on autopilot the entire time, up until you managed to get your way to the Jeffersonian. Hodgins and Angela had both sent you near identical pitiful expressions, and even Dr. Goodman came up to express his condolences. You felt suffocated. You couldn’t stand it, all of them, looking at you like you were going to just collapse the next moment or something. After 15 long years, you had expected something like this. You’d figured that it was just a matter of time. It wasn’t as big of a deal as they all made it out to be, right?

You had made a beeline for your sister’s office, eager to get away from everyone else’s looks of pity and condolences. You’d found Tempe giving Russ the cold shoulder in her office. The temperature when you walked in was absolutely frosty, with Tempe flipping through some case files while pointedly ignoring Russ as he stood awkwardly in front of her desk, a resigned expression on his face. Talk about bad family reunions. You ended up having to spend the better of your time there mediating between the 2 of them, and finally managed to convince Russ to go get lunch at the nearby diner and for Tempe to go look at some of the other evidence available before collapsing onto the sofa in Tempe’s office. You looked at the time: 11:48am. It’s not even lunch time, and I’m already exhausted. How much longer can this day get?

The answer turned out to be very much longer. Booth had received news earlier that your family car had been brought back to the FBI tech analysis department, which meant that Booth, Russ, Tempe and yourself had to go down to take a look at it. Russ was the first one to positively identify the car, saying “That’s our old car, all right,” while you and Tempe had just looked on, observing the vehicle you hadn’t seen for years. Never in your wildest dreams did you actually expect to see it as evidence in the FBI building, ever.

“The name of my school is scraped off — Woodside Elementary.” Tempe’s voice drew your attention back to reality.

“They said they didn’t find anything in the car,” you commented, as you walked towards where Booth was standing with his right hand against his hips as he flipped through what you suspected was a case file on your parents.

“There was a bloodstain, front seat, passenger side,” Booth glanced up, looking first towards you, then at Tempe. He looked down again at the case file before shouting, “Guys! Everybody!” He whistled, drawing the attention of all the tech guys in the room before continuing, “I need the space! Now!”

Tempe frowned. “Twice in two days,” she observed. You glanced at her, curious as to what she was referring to, but Booth interrupted your thoughts.

“I had the NCIC database check for a married couple who disappeared in 1978. Meet Max and Ruth Keenan,” Booth announced, before passing you, who stood in the middle between Tempe and Russ, two pictures.

“That’s Mom and Dad, all right,” Russ admitted as he looked at the pictures.

“The NCIC database, that’s…” Tempe paused, her frown deepening as she took in the facts.

“That’s criminals,” you finished, having realised the significance of what Booth found out the moment he mentioned the NCIC database.

“My parents were on a list of federal offenders?” Tempe asked, disbelief apparent in her voice.

“How do you like that? Guess a criminal nature runs in the family,” Russ replied snarkily.

“Russ!” You hissed, turning towards him in anger. You understood that he was frustrated and upset by Tempe’s less than welcoming attitude towards him, but this was not the time to be snarky and turn against each other. You could feel the tension rising, along with a headache building just behind your skull.

“You were seven years old, Russ,” Tempe started, clearly agitated, as she walked past you and stepped towards Russ, raising a yellow photograph and thrusting it towards Russ. “Old enough to remember. What... What is your real name? What is (Y/n)’s real name? What is my real name?”

Booth cut in, trying to turn Tempe’s attention away from Russ. “Bones, it’s right here in the file.”

But Tempe wasn’t buying it. “No! No! I want him to tell us, to tell me. What is our real name, Russ?” Tempe demanded, glaring at Russ. You held your breath as you glanced between your 2 older siblings. You wanted to de-escalate the situation, but at the same time, a part of you also wanted to hear it directly from Russ yourself. You couldn’t believe this was happening.

Russ took in a deep breath before starting, “My name was Kyle. (Y/n)’s name was Grace, and your name was Joy.” Involuntarily, you felt yourself release a small gasp. Grace. Grace Keenan. That was who you really were. Your head started pounding in full force now, as your thoughts swum muddled in your mind. You couldn’t do anything but stare at Russ in disbelief. The logical part of you already knew that Russ would know, he would have had to be involved in all this, given his age, but this irrational part of you still felt the sting of betrayal. First Mom and Dad abandon us. And now Russ is a part of this?

Still stunned and lost in your thoughts, you barely caught Tempe declaring “You are not our brother” before slapping Russ hard across the face. You snapped out of your thoughts at Russ’s pained grunt, your hands coming up to cover your mouth as you looked on in shock. “Bones…” Booth started, raising his hands to try and calm her down, but Tempe cut him off.

“No! He lied about that,” she exclaimed towards Booth, angry tears visibly pooling in her eyes now, before turning around to question Russ once again, “What else are you lying about? What else are you not telling us?” She didn’t wait for an answer, before striding off angrily without a second look behind her.

Russ looked between you and Booth awkwardly before looking down on the ground in guilt, shifting his weight. “(Y/n), I’m sorry…” Russ turned towards you after a short and awkward pause.

You took a step back. “No. No, Russ, you don’t get to say you’re sorry now, damnit,” you paused and took a deep breath in as tears sprung up against your will. Damnit, what happened to not crying!

“Psychic…” Booth turned towards you, fearful that you would have the same violent outburst like your sister.

“I— I won’t slap you, like Tempe did, but I’m not sure if I can trust you anymore,” you finished, releasing a shaky breath. You caught Russ’s flinch at your words. Pity for your brother shined through for a second before you steeled yourself. No. He betrayed us. Tempe has a point. What else is he hiding? “I… I need some time to myself.” You turned towards Booth, addressing him, before walking away like Tempe had mere minutes ago. Behind you, Booth gave Russ a resigned look as Russ looked towards the ground again, a pained expression on his face.

All these led to you, 10 minutes later, after a good calming down and washing up session, to be seated on the sofa in Tempe’s office, video calling your team to distract yourself from the mess that was your family.

“There, now everyone, just gather around and say hi to our dearest (Y/n)! You’re on speaker too, by the way, so everyone can hear you, babe.” Garcia’s voice drew your attention back towards the laptop on your lap and out of your memories of the last few, emotions filled hours. You hope that nobody had noticed your slightly red and puffy eyes, that would just give them even more incentive to question you over what you were doing. After all, you did just take a sudden, urgent week-long leave over what you claimed was “family issues to be resolved” with a promise to call the team and check in with them when you had the time to. You consider yourself lucky that Hotch or Morgan didn’t stop you from leaving the office without more explanation. God knows what you were going to tell them. Hey guys! So remember I never spoke about my family? Well, yeah, so actually, I have two older siblings— Russell Brennan and Temperance Brennan. Yes, Temperance Brennan, as in the Dr. Temperance Brennan, top of her field as a forensic anthropologist, as well as a famous, best-selling author! Yeah! Speaking of which, my sister, Temperance, and her team at the Jeffersonian, who are also the best of the best, just ID’d a set of unknown skeletal remains found at the Jeffersonian as my mother’s! So, I’d need the rest of the week off to go and find out what exactly happened to my mother! That would’ve been one hell of a surprise for the team, and you couldn’t do it, not when there was a pedophile stalker and torturer to catch in Hawaii. So, you’d kept quiet and packed your things and left the office as quickly as you could, all the while ignoring the way the team stared at your retreating back.

As the team gathered around Garcia and her laptop, you couldn’t help but relax a little, leaning into the back of the sofa. The team had always been your anchor, and after the shock and stress of learning that you weren’t who you thought you were, it was soothing to see and hear from the team, as if everything was normal.

“Hey beautiful, you alright over where you are? You don’t look too well, mama,” Derek frowned slightly as he took in the sight of (y/n) over the laptop screen. Emily and Spencer had both nodded in agreement with Derek’s statement, Emily raising her eyebrows at you while Spencer leaned forward towards the laptop. Penelope had her worried look on again, and JJ put a hand on Penelope’s shoulder as she looked at you on the screen, worried about you but still trying to comfort Penelope. Dave had given you that knowing stare, and Hotch had frowned and crossed his arms as he came to stand behind Spencer, who was seated beside Penelope, right in front of the laptop.

“Yeah, I’m- I’ll be fine, promise. Now, update me on what you guys have been doing? Please?” You tried to move on from the topic. The team didn’t even know about Temperance or Russ, so you didn’t want them finding out about your parents’ criminal backgrounds now. I can tell them about this mess afterwards, after I finally introduce Tempe and Russ to them. You sighed internally. That was going to be another big mess later on. One I’ll deal with when the time comes, I guess.

Hotch raised his eyebrows and gave you a look, which you knew meant that the issue wasn’t over, but he obliged your request and started filling you in about the details they’d gotten from interviewing the victims’ families, as well as the preliminary profile the team had come up with, with the rest of the team subsequently chiming in to add on other details.

“Do you guys need any help? I know officially, I’m on leave, but I can always help look into some data or do some research if needed in my spare time.” You leaned forward, frowning slightly as you took in the details and thought it over in your head.

Emily had just opened her mouth to reply to your question when a distinct male voice spoke up from your side of the call.

“Hey, (y/n)?”

Penelope squealed as Emily’s jaws immediately snapped shut with an audible click. “(y/n)! Oh my god! Who’s that Mr. Sexy Voice I hear!”

Your head had immediately snapped up to look over to Tempe’s office’s doors, where Booth was leaning against, having just come in to call you. He mouthed the words ‘Your team? Sorry,’ as he heard Penelope’s excited squeals. Booth had first met you when you visited your sister and helped out with one of the first few cases he’d worked with Tempe after her return from Guatemala, and was surprised to learn about your relationship with Bones, as he liked to call her, since Booth was pretty sure Bones hadn’t mentioned having a sister, not to mention since said sister also worked for the FBI, just in a different department.

It sure was a shock for him when you had introduced yourself as “SSA (Y/n) Brennan, I work with the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI”. You were pretty sure Booth didn’t stop teasing Tempe for at least a week for having a sister whose job is literally to use psychology to come up with a criminal profile for serial killers when she herself was so against the whole idea of psychology. (“While I myself may disagree about the exact nature and accuracy of psychology, I cannot deny that what (Nickname) does… does work. (Nickname) and her team have been accurate and their… ‘profiles’, as they call it, have indeed led to a large number of arrests and convictions of serial killers, and I am thus inclined to believe that to a certain degree, criminal profiling works. This doesn’t mean I believe in psychology, Booth. What (Nickname) and her team does is purely to classify and associate certain types of behaviours in a crime with certain types of killers, the same way we observe and use forensic evidence to identify the criminal in a case. In their case, their evidence just so happens to be a fixed set of routines and behaviours that they have been able to predict based on years and years of research and interviews and thousands of previous offenders who act as their basis of comparison. So drop it, I still don’t think psychology is a real thing.”)

You and Tempe had quickly told him about both your preferences to keep the knowledge to himself, for security reasons, since you hunted some of the most wicked evils in the world, and Temperance also was involved with many classified government projects and agencies, and neither of you wanted to draw attention to each other in case anyone thought about getting revenge by going after your loved ones. So far, only the “squint squad”: Zack, Hodgins, Angela and Dr. Goodman, and now Booth, knew about you being Bone’s sister. You’d told him that even your own team at the FBI didn’t know, and you’d like to keep it that way.

You sighed internally as you shook your head minutely at him. It wasn’t Booth’s fault, you should’ve known better than to not use headphones while you were on a call with the team. Someone was bound to have walked into Tempe’s office afterall, and so far, your secret was still safe. Emily’s voice drew your attention back to the laptop in your lap.

“Naughty, naughty girl, you’ve been hiding your boyfriend from us huh,” Emily teased you, smirking, “So you’ve been enjoying yourself with Mr Sexy Voice all this time?” You noticed that Booth’s sudden appearance had also gotten the attention of the rest of your team. JJ was grinning at you, Derek chuckling softly as he shook his head slightly, Rossi was giving you that knowing smirk of his, and even Spencer had sat up straighter. Hotch looked kind of upset, though, as his frown had deepened, and you noticed that his arms were now crossed, with his fists clenched. Before you could dwell on it, out of the corner of your eye, you saw Booth jerking his head towards the door, signalling that you had to leave. He’d probably found another lead regarding your parents, which reminded you of the reason you were on leave and not with your team.

You sighed and smiled softly, “I’m on leave to deal with some personal issues, guys. I’m not exactly enjoying myself in any way over here.” Penelope’s huge grin dimmed as she remembered how you’d looked when the call had first connected, and the rest of the team looked somewhat guilty and remorseful at your reminder. Taking pity on them, you continued on, “Anyway, seems like I have to go. I’ll call you guys again later on, if there’s anything I can do—”

“We’ll call you if we need you. Don’t worry, sweetheart, you just focus on what’s on your end, okay? We’ve got it covered here,” Derek interrupted. “Go on, we’ll see you later alright, mama? Take care of yourself.” The rest of the team nodded and murmured their assent to Derek’s statements, and you quickly bade them goodbye before disconnecting the call and closing the laptop.

Putting the laptop into your bag, you quickly gathered your belongings, stood up, then looked towards Booth. “You found something?”

“Yeah, I found the agent that was assigned to your parents’ case. I made an appointment to get her to come down to my office so all of us can speak to her about your parents. She’ll be there in 15 minutes, so me, you and Bones better hurry over. We’re also stopping by Bones’ apartment to pick up Russ, so,” Booth waited for you to walk out of the office before following closely behind you. “So, that was your team, huh. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.”

“It’s okay, someone was bound to walk in either way. I’m just glad it wasn’t Tempe, she’s still pretty upset about the whole thing. She probably would’ve said something that might have given the whole thing away. At least now, my team just thinks that you’re some secret hunk I’m seeing on the side who I haven’t told them about.” You shrugged as the both of you headed towards the parking lot, where Booth had already told Bones to go to wait for him as he went off to fetch you.

As you both stepped into the elevator, Booth chuckled at your last statement, before asking you, “And you? You say that Bones is still pretty upset — what about you? Aren’t you upset? I mean, you were even younger than Bones when your parents just…” he gestured with his hands while glancing over at you, unsure if he was going to set off another bout of tears with his comment.

You sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day. “To be honest? I’m more worried about my team finding out than upset over the whole, ‘my-parents-turned-out-to-be-wanted-criminals’ thing. Like what you said, I was younger when they had run off and left Russ, Tempe and me behind to fend for ourselves. Honestly, after what I’ve seen and learnt in my line of work, I… I think I can see it. If I combine their behaviours with what we just learnt… I think… I kind of knew it in my guts already, y’know?” You sighed once more, frowning as you looked over at Booth. “Does that make me a bad person? That I know my parents were criminals, and still love them? I still feel shocked and betrayed, of course, but… after I’ve got the time to calm down and think it through, I’m not as upset, you know, not like Tempe. Not when Dad and Mom always tried their best to shower us with love and keep us safe. Does this mean I’m a bad person?”

Booth put his hands on your right shoulder, giving it a light squeeze as the both of you stepped out when the elevator doors opened. “No, Psychic, it doesn’t. You’re just human, like Russ, like Bones. You just happen to need less time to accept the facts, that’s all.” Booth paused where he was walking in front of you, turning around to face you completely. “Hey, Bones will come around. She will, okay? She just needs a little more time, and when she does, she’ll have you, Russ and the squint squad around to support her, okay? You do too, don’t forget that.”

You faked a scowl. “I told you, I hate that nickname. Profiling is a science, I don’t read minds.” After a second, you smirked a little, nodding, as you added, “And what about you? So, you and Tempe, huh. Any progress on that?”

Booth’s neck flushed as he floundered for an excuse. You chuckled and decided to spare him the awkwardness. “You’re good for her, Seels, I see that. Stay with her, she’s going to need you, even if she says she doesn’t,” you patted Booth’s left shoulder.

“Come on, we better get going. Tempe’s going to be wondering where we are by now. You better protect her well. And don’t hurt her, Seels, or I will have your head, fellow FBI agent or not.” You raised an eyebrow at him as you strode towards Booth’s FBI issued standard, black SUV, leaving Booth jogging slightly to catch up to you as he laughed softly while shaking his head.

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